Current:Home > reviewsBrody Malone, Fred Richard highlight 2024 U.S. Olympic men's gymnastics team -Wealth Momentum Network
Brody Malone, Fred Richard highlight 2024 U.S. Olympic men's gymnastics team
Benjamin Ashford View
Date:2025-04-09 07:48:21
The U.S. men's gymnastics team for the 2024 Paris Olympics has been set.
After four sessions of competition across the national championships in Texas last month and the Olympic trials in Minnesota this week, five athletes distinguished themselves to the selection committee − and scoring algorithm − as the group with the best chance of earning an Olympic medal about a month from now. The U.S. last reached the podium at the Summer Games in 2008, when it won bronze.
Here is the full team, as unveiled by USA Gymnastics shortly after the end of trials Saturday afternoon.
Brody Malone
Age: 24
Height: 5' 5"
Hometown: Summerville, Georgia
Best event(s): High bar, parallel bars
Malone was all but a lock after his sterling performance at nationals, where he won his third U.S. title in four years. The Stanford University product finished fourth at the 2022 world championships and is probably the Americans' most polished all-around gymnast, capable of putting up world-class scores on high bar (he won the world championship in the event in 2022) and being solid to above-average on every other apparatus. The only real question mark for Malone was whether he would be healthy enough for Paris after suffering a gruesome knee injury a little more than a year ago. But his performances over the past month have silenced those doubts, and he will enter his second Olympics with a very realstic shot of earning an individual medal.
Frederick Richard
Age: 20
Hometown: Stoughton, Massachusetts
Best event(s): Floor exercise, vault
A rising junior at the University of Michigan, Richard automatically locked his spot on the team by winning the Olympic trials and placing inside the top three in three different events. He is one of Team USA's most talented gymnasts and arguably its brightest young star. At 19, he became the youngest American man to win a medal at the world championships, and his all-around bronze was only the fourth in that event by a U.S. man. Like Malone, Richard doesn't have many holes in his game, which makes him valuable in a team setting. But he is particularly dynamic on floor exercise, where he is among the best in the world.
Asher Hong
Age: 20
Height: 5' 1"
Hometown: Tomball, Texas
Best event(s): Still rings, vault
Hong was the 2023 national champion and a member of the team that won bronze at the world championships that year, but a rough showing at nationals left him on the outside of the Olympic picture looking in. That all changed this week in Minneapolis. The rising junior at Stanford put up the best score of trials on still rings and proved that he can add a ton of value on vault, squeezing himself back onto the team with a tremendous performance Saturday afternoon.
Paul Juda
Age: 22
Height: 5' 4"
Hometown: Deerfield, Illinois
Best event(s): Floor exercise, pommel horse
Juda, who competed alongside Richard at Michigan, was one of several gymnasts who were on the Olympic fringes entering trials. He earned his spot on this team not because of his all-around scores, which were good but not great, but instead by providing value in key events − specifically floor exercise and pommel horse. For the U.S. to medal in Paris, it needs to shore up some of its weaknesses, and Juda's ability to score in those two events should help do just that. A member of last year's world championship team, he is also well-rounded enough that he could fill in on other apparatuses in a pinch, in case of injury or illness.
Stephen Nedoroscik
Age: 25
Height: 5' 5"
Hometown: Worcester, Massachusetts
Best event(s): Pommel horse
Nedoroscik only competes in one event: Pommel horse. But he has won a world title and four national championships on that apparatus, and it just so happens to be the Americans' greatest weakness − and that's why he's on this team. The U.S. team selection procedures are more systematic than the women's, calculating the top team using scores from nationals and Olympic trials. It's a math equation, basically. And because Nedoroscik thrives in an area where so many other gymnasts struggled, he will soon be off to Paris.
Alternates
- Khoi Young (Bowie, Maryland / Stanford University)
- Shane Wiskus (Spring Park, Minnesota / EVO Gymnastics)
veryGood! (769)
Related
- What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
- A Florida man kept having migraines. Doctors then discovered tapeworm eggs in his brain.
- Trader Joe’s $3 mini totes went viral on TikTok. Now, they’re reselling for hundreds
- National Good Samaritan Day: 6 of our most inspiring stories that highlight amazing humans
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Ohio Chick-Fil-A owner accused of driving 400 miles to sexually abuse child he met online
- Both sides rest in manslaughter trial of Michigan school shooter’s dad
- Horoscopes Today, March 12, 2024
- Small twin
- Model Kelvi McCray Dead at 18 After Being Shot by Ex While on FaceTime With Friends
Ranking
- Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
- Meriden officer suspended for 5 days after video shows him punching a motorist while off duty
- New York Times is sending copyright takedown notices to Wordle clones
- 'Heartbreaking': 3 eggs of beloved bald eagle couple Jackie and Shadow unlikely to hatch
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Get a Ninja Portable Blender for Only $45, $350 Worth of Beauty for $50: Olaplex, Tula & More Daily Deals
- Inflation data from CPI report shows sharper price gains: What it means for Fed rate cuts.
- Some college basketball coaches make more than their NBA counterparts
Recommendation
SFO's new sensory room helps neurodivergent travelers fight flying jitters
Paul Alexander, Texas man who lived most of his life in an iron lung, dies at 78
'Grey's Anatomy' returns for 20th season. Premiere date, time and where to watch
Judge overseeing Georgia election interference case dismisses some charges against Trump
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
'Dateline' correspondent Keith Morrison remembers stepson Matthew Perry: 'Not easy'
Republican-led House panel in Kentucky advances proposed school choice constitutional amendment
A Massachusetts town spent $600k on shore protection. A winter storm washed it away days later